


Promises She Will Not Keep

by CavannaRose, MelyssaShadows



Series: The Battle Against Orora [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Chance Meetings, Escape, Forced Marriage, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2020-10-26 20:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20748065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CavannaRose/pseuds/CavannaRose, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyssaShadows/pseuds/MelyssaShadows
Summary: Promised in marriage to a man that she once called Father, Sarojina flees her home and attempts to make a new life for herself. Along the way she meets a scruffy scholar with as much to hide as she had.





	1. Chapter 1

She looked into the eyes of the man whom she had always called father, and what she saw there made her shudder in horror. There was hate, anger, but worse, there was lust. Perhaps she was young yet, but she knew that look when she saw it in a man's eyes. Her mother had warned her about the dark desires of men, and the consequences they held for women in their world. Too bad mother had not taken her own advice. Sarojina stood tall, head held high with pride, but inside she was breaking. On the stage below the balcony where she had been forced to stand, knelt her mother and a man, a charming man who had been much in their company. He had brought Sarojina little gifts, teasing her, playing with her. He had been far more attentive than the man she had called father, and now she knew why.

Adultery. In a world where titles passed through the matrilineal line it was the worst crime that could be committed. It was not only a breaking of sacred vows, it broke the compact forged between two families. Her mother had been wed to Lord Trenton to tie the families together, to grant the Trenton family dominion over the Khatri lands. Their offspring was to be the seal on that contract. Sarojina was supposed to be the seal on that contract. Now, the ugly truth stared at all of them. She was not the daughter of Lord Trenton, and the contract was void.

Unless... The voice of Sarojina's maternal grandfather had slid into the conversation like an oily snake, unless Sarojina was to wed Lord Trenton, thus meeting the tenets of the contract, that a daughter of the House of Khatri wed with a son of the House of Trenton. She would have three weeks of mourning for her mother, and then she was to be wedded and bedded. It was too much to consider. Too much to bear. She would not do it.

Her eyes lowered to the scene below, meeting her mother's one final time. Her lips moved, mouthing 'I love you' to the woman who had brought her into the world. She could not hold the indiscretion against her mother. Lord Trenton was a cold, cruel man. She was glad that her mother had something of love and gentleness in her life, no matter what it was now costing them both. She turned away as the executioner approached. They could make her attend, but they could not force her to watch her mother be murdered in defense of an archaic and unfair system.

The thud of an ax, the exhalation of a hundred bodies at once in the crowd below, and it was over. Sarojina quickly headed for the exit to the balcony. Three weeks, that was all she had to come up with a plan, a way out of the same trap her mother had been caught in. Lord Trenton waited for her at the exit, his grip on her arm fearsome in its strength, bruising her delicate flesh. "Three weeks, girl. Three weeks and I will have my due from your family of snakes."

She tugged her arm free, glaring defiantly up into his face. "You will have nothing, just as you have now. It is all you deserve."

A massive hand flew, connecting with the side of her face with a loud crack, loud enough that it drew a few curious glances, though seeing the source the watchers quickly moved along. Cowards. "I will teach you to mind your tongue, girl."

Unable to resist, Sarojina stuck out her tongue and blew a loud raspberry, quickly turning on her heel and racing away from Lord Trenton. One hand wrapped around the charm on her necklace, she dodged and weaved through the crowd, finally wedging herself in an out-of-the-way alcove. Squeezing her eyes shut, she whispered 'please don't see me' over and over again. With her eyes closed, she didn't see the charm in her hand glow briefly, nor did she notice as her image wavered, and then vanished from view. Lord Trenton pounded by, several guards at his back, but they passed by her hiding spot.

Opening her eyes, she was shocked to find herself undiscovered. She had risked too much, and three weeks was not going to be possible. She had to get out tonight. Continuing to whisper her little prayer of invisibility, she carefully picked her way to the edge of the keep, ducking behind barrels and trees whenever a guard passed by. The hardest part would be getting through the gate, but bolstering her courage, she bolted right between the two guards, letting out a triumphant little laugh on the other side. They hadn't even moved to catch her!

Luck was clearly on her side, and Sarojina had quickly set out to find her fortune elsewhere. At the first town she came to she traded her elaborate robes for simple leathers, and her jewelry for a bow and arrows, all but her mother's necklace. It had been in her family for a dozen generations, passed down by a long-forgotten ancestor who had traveled here from a distant land. It was the last item of her mother's that she had, and she held it too dear to part with.

She wasn't sure how long she traveled, long enough to become proficient enough to provide for herself with the bow, and enough leftover to make a few coins here and there. Pelts joined her leathers, and furs made for far more comfortable sleeping than the cold hard ground. Finally, she came to a larger city than she was used to, many moons from the keep where she had lived her whole life. This one had a Grand Library, and unable to resist the call of the written word, denied to her for many months now, she headed for the edifice, hoping that perhaps she could spend some time in quiet contemplation over a dozen scrolls or so. She wanted to learn of the place her ancestor had come from, and maybe decipher the runes on the back of the charm.

The library attendant, however, was not in an agreeable mood. "Only those with a letter of commendation may enter the Grand Library." With a sniff, the attendant looked her up and down. "You will hardly be able to acquire such."

"Oh come on now, little old me won't harm anything. Can you really deny a person when all they want to do is learn?" She leaned in, giving her most charming smile as she fiddled with her necklace. Once more she missed as the charm flashed.

The attendant blinked, then smiled at her. "Well... I suppose we could make an exception just this once..."


	2. Chapter 2

A man cleared his voice, settling a stack of books down on the librarian's desk before speaking up, his voice soft. "I've been a loyal patron of this establishment for some time. Surely, you'll trust me to show her around? I think I know these shelves better than anyone." He laughed, and the sound was rusty, like he didn't make it often, but still pleasant. His hair, unfashionably reddish and far too long, was brushed back from his face. It was a handsome face, though not traditionally so. His nose was too long, his jaw too narrow and thick with stubble, but he had the air of a forgetful scholar about him, and that comforted her.

Sarojina looked at the young man for a long minute, brow furrowed. It was odd, wasn't it, the way he had just stepped forward and offered assistance? She had learned in her time away from home, and in the events that led to her leaving, that people rarely offered something for nothing. Still, the tall young woman needed all the assistance she could get here. Something had happened to her family line, and she was intent on discovering what it was. Someone who knew the archive would be an asset that she would be a fool to ignore.

The librarian, however, seemed relieved to hand her over to someone else. "Yes, that would be acceptable. Please, Mister Widogast, show the young lady around and make sure she understands the rules we hold dear here at the Grand Library." Sarojina drew herself up to her full height and performed a rather stiff and proper bow. Her feelings were ruffled, but she brushed the mild irritation away as soon as she turned her back on the woman. There would always be people who would see only what she presented to the world, and she should be grateful for it not resentful. It was what had let her hide and travel for this long.

"May I ask what you were looking for? I'll gladly guide you in the right direction." She turned her attention back to the messy scholar, and gave him a polite smile, one she had practiced at Court a thousand times. It didn't reach her eyes, but such expressions rarely did these days.

"I appreciate the offer, sir. I'm afraid it has been many moons since I have been in an archive of any size, never mind one as big as this." She gestures vaguely around them, tightening the straps that hold her gear to her and turning towards the door he had come through. Chin high, face confident, she steps through the door and away from the librarian. Sarojina hadn't thought this far through. She wasn't even really sure how or where to start, all she had was the charm around her neck, and a few scattered stories from her grandmother about an undying ruler in a desert land far away. It wasn't much to go on, but it was what she had.

Pacing through the small chamber on the other side of the door, she moved to the table that showed obvious signs it had recently been in use and... animal hair? She blinked, but then shrugged. What and who a library let through their doors was up to them, after all, and she had heard that in the wild lands outside what she had used to call home that there were all kinds of people, not just ones that looked like her and Lord Trenton's folk. Tales of pointed ears, scales and fur, feathers even, so many strange things to encounter, for those bold enough to go looking.

She was bold, but her interests were smaller, more personal. Her fingers played along the carved arm of a wooden chair as she rolled over the words he had asked. What was she looking for? If she couldn't define it, could he still point her in the right direction? How much did she dare reveal? Her fingers traveled up to her charm of their own volition, and she turned it over in her hands. It was warm to the touch, it was always warm, and she liked to imagine that it pulsed lightly in her hands, like laughter that didn't quite escape through fingers pressed to lips. Did she dare mention the charm?

No, best to keep that to herself for now. Stepping away from the table she trailed her fingertips along the spines of books, stopping at an alcove with carefully stacked scrolls. "I'm not certain you can help me, or even if I can find what I am searching for. You see... I'm looking for my people. Not the ones I recently left, but those that came before them. My ancestors traveled from far away, and I am trying to find signs or information about where they might have come from. All I know was it was hot, a destitute land where nothing would grow anymore, ruled by some eternal being that never seemed to die."

She shrugged, the merest whisper of motion as she barely raised her shoulders, one elegant eyebrow arching upwards. "Perhaps if you could direct me to ... geography? Some kind of history of nations perhaps. Travelers tales and stories of ancient persons. It's not like I'm in a hurry, so I can spend time digging through all of them." She doubted that she would find her answer here, in the first place that she happened to stumble upon, but she could cram enough information into her head as it would hold and then ask about other libraries. Surely if she studied enough she could find what she was looking for.

She turned again, fast enough that her braid swung hard enough to knock scrolls from their holders and spill them across the floor. With a gasp of embarrassment, she whirled around again, dropping to her knees. "Oh no! Did I damage you?" Clearly talking to the scrolls not the kind gentleman who had offered her assistance, she chased unrolling scrolls across the floor on her hands and knees, trying to gather them up and roll them back closed as she did so.


	3. Chapter 3

On her hands and knees, rough stone beneath her, scraping at her skin. In a rush, Sarojina scurried to gather the scrolls she had inadvertently scattered, cursing her eternal clumsiness. If she didn't know any better she would say she was cursed, except sometimes she had such fantastic luck that it couldn't be true. It was more like the klutz side of her was payment in turn for her bouts of phenomenal luck, like the chance that gave her access to the library. As she collected the scrolls, her mind drifted back to another time, another place, when her clumsiness had been just as unfortunate and destructive. 

She couldn't have been more than twelve summers old at the time, just entering that awkward, coltish phase where young women were more limbs than anything. She had been a late bloomer, none of the budding and swelling that had affected the other girls she knew had come to bother her yet, and she had been glad. As their physical maturity convinced the others that they themselves were suddenly mature, they settled into the expected roles. Instead of racing around like they had the previous summer, they settled in neat groups like colorfully winged butterflies, tatting and embroidery nestled in their laps. Not Sarojina, though. She took all those too-long limbs of hers and threw them into the outdoors with reckless abandon, racing the boys, chasing squirrels up trees, and climbing anything that looked like it could be climbed. The girls tittered and said unkind things behind her back, and even crueler things to her face. "Honestly, Sarojina, with the way you look you might as well _be_ a boy, you certainly act like one." She had stood there, skinned knees, a fascinating twist of abandoned birds nest dropping from hands that had held it so carefully before.They cut the excitement away from her with their biting scorn, and tears had welled up in her eyes. "Oh look, she's not a boy after all. She's just a _baby_." She had fled, the laughter of the young women, who just the summer before had been her closest companions, chasing her like hounds after the fox.

Like that selfsame fox, she had run without looking forward, tears blinding her as she moved, fleet-footed through the old Keep. Bouncing off several walls, earning herself a half dozen more scrapes and scratches, she didn't care until she crashed headlong into another body. A loud clanging shattered the relative quiet of the corridor, and as she opened her teary eyes, she realized that she'd collided with her father's squire. The poor young man had been carrying a load of simple short swords to the armory to be sharpened and put away, but now they were scattered all over the abandoned hallway. Embarrassed, she had dropped to her knees, apologizing profusely as she tried to help pick up the heavy steel blades. He hadn't been angry though. In fact, he had thrown his head back and laughed. Sarojina had been taken aback, kneeling there on the ground, almost certain that he was laughing at her. Wiping his eyes, he dropped to his knees beside her to gather up the swords. "You're Sarojina, right? My Lord's daughter? I'm sorry I laughed, but you came crashing down the hallway and reminded me that sometimes life is just like that. I was so worried about doing everything perfectly, and as fast as possible, that I took too many blades. The blacksmith warned me, and I did it anyways. You were just the cannonball of humility I needed." It didn't sound like a compliment, but his smile was sweet and disarming, and she couldn't help but return it.

"I'm afraid that though I have seen you, Sir, I don't know your name. Father doesn't talk about his training at the table. He doesn't think it's fitting conversation for" Sarojina paused, cleared her throat, and deepened her voice to imitate that of a grown man, "delicate female sensibilities. It will unsettle your poor stomachs." For a moment the squire looked so shocked she couldn't help but burst into giggles, and he quickly joined her, shaking his head.

"Oh that sounds just like him. Never mind that most of the neighbouring kingdoms have female knights, and even our own army allows women to become soldiers." He set aside his pile of blades, and offered her his hand, palm up. "They call me Eodwulf. I might be just a squire now, but when my year here is up I'm going to take the exam for the Soltryce Academy and become a great wizard. I was going to go last year, but when the offer for this position came in, I couldn't pass it up. I'm the first outsider to be permitted to come train here."

Sarojina blushed, though she wasn't quite certain why, and the pair stood, each holding a bundle of blades. "I always wanted to learn the sword, but Father would never permit it." She tried her best not to sound bitter, she really did, but it had hurt when she had been shot down so thoroughly. His belief that ladies were somehow naturally weaker and incapable of doing the same things that men were had been a sore spot between them with increasing frequency lately. He wanted her to join the other young women with their needlework and gossip, she wanted to fight, and ride, and just be free.

He squinted at her, stepping back and giving her a once over. "I think you would have to bulk up a lot to master the sword. There's a lot more to it than just swinging. With your build you'd probably be deadly as an archer though. We could probably even convince your Father that it's an acceptable weapon for a Lady. An archer doesn't engage in direct battle, not if they're doing their job right, and ladies are often called upon to ride the Hunt with their Lords, and being able to properly fire a bow would mean you could participate instead of just ride along and look pretty."

Her eyes sparkled up at the big squire, Eodwulf, the smile on her face as bright as the sun after a storm. "You really think so? You think I could?"


End file.
